1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical image filing system in which a plurality of medical images are registered or retrieved on or from a medical image database for use in managing numerous images acquired by an endoscope system, diagnostic ultrasound system, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Endoscope systems, in which an elongated insertional part of an endoscope is inserted into a body cavity and a solid-state imaging device or the like is used as an image pickup means, so that intracavitary organs can be examined or diagnosed while being viewed through a monitor screen, have been widely adopted in recent years.
Diagnostic ultrasound systems, in which ultrasonic waves are irradiated to an intracavitary organ and the state of the intracavitary organ is rendered according to the magnitude of reflection or transmission of the ultrasonic waves, so that the intracavitary organ can be examined or diagnosed while being viewed through a monitor screen, have enjoyed popularity these days.
Aside from the endoscope system or diagnostic ultrasound system, diagnostic systems using an electronic (electric) means to enable examination or diagnosis of a living body while viewing the state of the living body have been put to use or proposed.
On the other hand, proposals have been made for an image display unit based on a medical image database that is useful for managing numerous images produced by the endoscope system, diagnostic ultrasound system, or the like.
An image filing system is included in the endoscope system or diagnostic ultrasound system so that endoscopic or ultrasonic images produced by an electronic endoscope or an ultrasound probe can be recorded on a recording medium such as a magneto-optical disk for future diagnostic use, and thus used on a systematic basis.
Prior arts include an image filing system disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.6-110986. The image filing system comprises an image recorder for performing reversible or non-reversible compression on image signals sent from an endoscope system or an ultrasound system and storing the resultant signals as image data representing a plurality of images, an image reproducer for reproducing an image recorded in the image recorder, and a data communication unit enabling communication between an external host computer and the image recorder via a data input/output terminal. Data concerning a patient to be examined by the endoscope or ultrasound system is entered at an examination reception terminal connected to the host computer, transferred to the image recorder via the data communication unit, and then stored in the form of a database. Thus, a great number of images produced by a plurality of endoscope systems or the like can be stored and managed.
An image display unit included in the foregoing image filing system may consist of a processing means for enlarging or reducing at least one first view image without changing the amount of image data, and a synthesizing means for synthesizing a second view image produced by enlarging or reducing the first view image using the processing means and as least the first view image with other image.
The foregoing image display unit can simultaneously display the first view image and the second view image produced by enlarging or reducing the first view image without changing the amount of image data.
However, the image display unit in accordance with the prior art does not allow simultaneous reference of image files containing different retrieval information, for example, endoscopic images rendering a lesion of the same patient and being produced before and after treatment. The operability is unsatisfactory when it comes to close diagnosis to be performed through simultaneous reference of view images retrieved according to different retrieval information.